Where to begin….

Sarita is an amazing woman by any standard. She is vibrant, smart, adventurous, and proud. She has accomplished so much and her story is quite phenomenal. She had an arranged marriage at 19, and she has two children. She devoted her life to raising them and now they are older and she has forged herself an independent life, well, as independent as possible given cultural constraints. Her and I were able to chat freely and develop a bond. I will not betray any trust in this public forum, but she opened my eyes to many things and she is an amazing and strong spirit. The story of the hostel is quite interesting. I am sure that I will get some details wrong as I am writing this some time after hearing it.

She said that one day her "friend" made her feel bad, calling her a burden to her husband because she didn't earn any money. While it made her feel bad, it also ignited a spark inside her. She went to the temple and sat in front of one deity or another. (Sadly my limited knowledge of the Hindu gods has caused me to forget which one.) She asked that her family be safe, her children healthy, and that she would find the answer to earn more money than this friend of hers. She swore to this God that she would sit there for as long as it took day after day until her question was answered. She found the answer as she looked around at the large house she was living in. Her family and her in laws only used one floor (there are three) so she decide to take in travelers on the other floors. She worked tirelessly to get the rooms ready.

When she began taking in young woman, she offered a room, laundry, and three meals a day. She handled all the laundry, cooking, cleaning, and organized fun things for the travelers to do. She did it all on her own until she was out earning everyone, especially that "friend" of hers. Now has a chef to cook all the meals, a cleaning women, and a laundry person.

Now some of you are probably thinking, "Damn I don't even have all that help!" And you're right. But you see the way your thinking is based on your life here, which is different than in Faridabad. Yes, she was earning enough to give herself a break from some of the work, but she still worked tirelessly to meet our needs and is available 24 hours away. Plus, by her paying people to do those jobs, it allowed those people to put food on their tables for their families. You would be sick knowing how little they earn, but Sartita knows that providing a job for them allows them to survive. So for her it is less about a "luxury" and more about giving to the community when you have to give. So as soon as her profit margin allowed her to create jobs for people, she did exactly that. Trust me, she's not earning a wage that you would cause you consider hiring all these services, but she deeply believes in building and supporting the community. So she is doing what she can to build the economy in the town.

The first evening I stayed in Sarita's house she excitedly knocked on the door to our room. We yelled come in and she burst through the door with a smile on her face that would rival a mouth full of ten foot teeth. She had a newspaper in her hand and she told us that she could not contain her excitement. She had been published! She was so triumphant and her happiness was conatgiuous and we were all full of smiles and congratulations. We read the article, and again shamefully, I was so overwhelmed and knew so little on my first night there, much of what I read didn't have as much meaning as it would if I read it now. The article was about how the city was building and offered so much now and how she is thankful to be a part of the process. I found out that Sarita is educated with a degree, I think in political science. Again, I was so overwhelmed when I first read that article not much was committed to memory. I would love to be able to read it again now. I found out much later in the week that she also serves on a council in the city, but doesn't go as often as she would like for family reasons.

There are obviously struggles for woman in India, but Sarita is part of the progress. While there is so much more progress to be made, it is happening. It is slow, but steady in the cities. I am thankful for all she shared with me and the closeness we were able to develop as were exchanged stories about life. I will be forever changed by her and her strength.